Epidemiological characteristics, management, and outcomes of atrial fibrillation in TUNISIA: Results from the National Tunisian Registry of Atrial Fibrillation (NATURE-AF).

BACKGROUND: Contemporary registries on atrial fibrillation (AF) are scare in North African countries. HYPOTHESIS: In the context of the epidemiological transition, prevalence of valvular AF in Tunisia has decreased and the quality of management is still suboptimal. METHODS: NATURE-AF is a prospective Tunisian registry, involving consecutive patients with AF from March 1, 2017 to May 31, 2017, with a one-year follow-up period. All the patients with an Electrocardiogram-documented AF, confirmed in the year prior to enrolment were eligible. The epidemiological characteristics and outcomes were described. RESULTS: A total of 915 patients were included in this study, with a mean age of 64.3 ± 22 years and a male/female sex ratio of 0.93. Valvular AF was identified in 22.4% of the patients. The mean CHA2 DS2 VASC score in nonvalvular AF was 2.4 ± 1.6. Monotherapy with antiplatelet agents was prescribed for 13.8% of the patients. However, 21.7% of the subjects did not receive any antithrombotic agent. Oral anticoagulants were prescribed for half of the patients with a low embolic risk score. In 341 patients, the mean time in therapeutic range was 48.87 ± 28.69%. Amiodarone was the most common antiarrhythmic agent used (52.6%). During a 12-month follow-up period, 15 patients (1.64%) had thromboembolism, 53 patients (5.8%) had major hemorrhage, and 52 patients (5.7%) died. CONCLUSIONS: NATURE-AF has provided systematic collection of contemporary data regarding the epidemiological and clinical characteristics as well as the management of AF by cardiologists in Tunisia. Valvular AF is still prevalent and the quality of anticoagulation was suboptimal.

Acute hemodialysis effects on doppler echocardiographic indices.

Conventional echocardiographic (ECHO) parameters of systolic and diastolic function of the left ventricular (LV) have been shown to be load dependent. However, the impact of pre-load reduction on tissue Doppler (TD) parameters of LV function is incompletely understood. To evaluate the effect of a single hemodialysis (HD) session on LV systolic and diastolic function using pulsed Doppler echocardiography and pulsed tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), we studied 81 chronic HD patients (40 males; mean age 52.4 ± 16.4 years) with these tools. ECHO parameters were obtained 30 min before and 30 min after HD. Fluid volume removed by HD was 1640 ± 730 cm³. HD led to reduction in LV end-diastolic volume (P <0.001), end-systolic volume (P <0.001), left atrium area (P <0.001), peak early (E-wave) trans-mitral flow velocity (P <0.001), the ratio of early to late Doppler velocities of diastolic mitral inflow (P <0.001) and aortic time velocity integral (P <0.001). No significant change in peak S velocity of pulmonary vein flow after HD was noted. Early and late diastolic (E') TDI velocities and the ratio of early to late TDI diastolic velocities (E'/A') on the lateral side of the mitral annulus decreased significantly after HD (P = 0.013; P = 0.007 and P = 0.008, respectively). Velocity of flow progression (Vp) during diastole was not affected by pre-load reduction. Pulmonary artery systolic pressure and the diameter of the inferior vena cava decreased significantly (P <0.001 and P <0.001, respectively) after HD. We conclude that most of the Doppler-derived indices of diastolic function are pre-load-dependent and velocity of flow progression was minimally affected by pre-load reduction in HD patients.